The present invention relates generally to the mixing of carbonated beverages, and more particularly to an apparatus for effecting such mixing without pressure.
In the automatic production of carbonated beverages, for example cola-type beverages, orange drinks, lemonade drinks and the like, aromatic flavoring agents in liquid form, e.g., syrups and concentrates, are used which are supplied at certain pressures to a discharging valve which discharges a predetermined quantity of the respective flavoring agent into carbonated water. The carbonated water is transported in pressurized supply lines into a mixing head for example of a soft drink dispensing machine where it becomes mixed with the predetermined quantity of flavoring agent to form a finished beverage that may be dispensed.
Widespread as this approach is, it has certain disadvantages which make improvements in this field of art highly desirable.
In particular, the equipment which is required for accomplishing this conventional procedure is very complicated, necessitating the provision of many containers, pressure-withstanding conduits and the like. Moreover in order to obtain a readier mixing between the liquid flavoring agent and the carbonated water, the prior art can use only liquid flavoring agents with a limited viscosity and thus limited sugar content, that is flavoring agents the Brix number of which does not exceed a maximum of 56. Even under these circumstances it is observed that clogging of the pressure lines, valves and containers may occur due to formation of encrustations resulting from crystallization of sugar. Aside from the manner in which this interferes with the proper operation of the dispensing equipment, this relatively low Brix number has the disadvantage that the flavoring agents are not self-conserving, because up to 60 Brix the flavoring agents are not inherently sterile and must therefore be made sterile by applying heat or adding preservatives to them.
A further disadvantage of the prior art has to do with the carbonating of the water. The prior art systems have a certain CO.sub.2 content in the cooled water. The carbonated water is supplied under pressure to the dispensing point in the immediate vicinity of which the liquid flavoring agent is added to the carbonated water. As soon as the carbonated water leaves the dispensing valve and is discharged into conditions of atmospheric pressure, turbulence results due to the expansion of the CO.sub.2 which takes place, so that a part of the CO.sub.2 content becomes lost. This loss is further increased in that the mixing between carbonated water and liquid flavoring agent takes place at a time and at a location at which the turbulence resulting from the expansion has not yet quieted. All of the prior-art devices operating on this principle, the so-called "post-mix devices", are possessed of this disadvantage and are incapable of imparting to the dispensed beverage as high a CO.sub.2 level as is for instance present in a similar carbonated beverage contained in a bottle or can. Attempts to increase the CO.sub.2 content in the dispensed beverage by increasing the amount of CO.sub.2 admitted into the water to carbonate the same result in a formation of a foam head on the dispensed beverage, which is not acceptable and which, furthermore, again results in CO.sub.2 losses.